African-American History- Christian Denominational Involvement

The African-American church, and African-American clergy, have been at the forefront of "nearly every major social, moral, and political movement in the black community," according to the Encyclopedia of American Religion and Politics (Djupe, et al., 2003, p. 9). And there is not one particular denomination that African-American Christians are drawn to, any more than there is any one specific denomination that Caucasians are drawn to. This paper reflects the different churches that African-Americans have been drawn to, namely the AME, the Pentecostal Roman Catholic Church, and Episcopalian Church.

The School of Divinity at Regent University reports in its 2007-2008 Colloquium on African-American Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements in the U.S. that "Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity is the fastest growing segment of the African-American Church." Indeed, black Christians have been heavily involved in nearly all aspects of the Pentecostal movement "…from founding at the Azusa Street Revival at...
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